Transcribe

Program doesn't launch.

Asked by Richard C. Steffens

I first started using Transcribe in June or July on a machine running Ubuntu 10.04. That machine crashed last Sunday (10-16-2011). I built a new machine and installed Ubuntu 10.04 on it. I tried to load and run Transcribe. The loading seems to have been successful. I clicked on Applications > Ubuntu Software Center and typed "transcribe" in the search box. I clicked on More Info to make sure I was looking at the correct Transcribe and found the comment, "Transcribe is an audio player focussed on transcription." which I recall seeing somewhere on the Launchpad site for the program by Frederik Elwert.

As I look at the Ubuntu Software Center window I see that Transcribe is installed. If I click on Applications > Sound & Video I see the icon of the keyboard with the green arrow on its upper left hand corner. When I click on it nothing appears to happen.

If I open a terminal window, cd to /usr/bin and try running the program I get the following:

rsteff@moonguide:/usr/bin$ sudo ./transcribe
[sudo] password for rsteff:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "./transcribe", line 503, in <module>
    window = TranscribeWindow()
  File "./transcribe", line 89, in __new__
    new_object.finish_initializing(builder)
  File "./transcribe", line 180, in finish_initializing
    self.player = TranscribePlayer()
  File "/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.6/transcribe/player.py", line 54, in __init__
    'scaletempo')
gst.ElementNotFoundError: scaletempo
rsteff@moonguide:/usr/bin$

Does that information give any hint on what I can do to get the program running?

Thanks.

Question information

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Transcribe Edit question
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Solved by:
Frederik Elwert
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Revision history for this message
Best Frederik Elwert (frederik-elwert) said : 		#1

Oh, that is probably a missing dependency. Please try to install the package "gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad", that should fix the issue.

Revision history for this message
Richard C. Steffens (rsteff) said : 		#2

On 10/22/2011 04:35 AM, Frederik Elwert wrote:
> Your question #175667 on Transcribe changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/transcribe/+question/175667
>
> Status: Open => Answered
>
> Frederik Elwert proposed the following answer:
> Oh, that is probably a missing dependency. Please try to install the
> package "gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad", that should fix the issue.

Thanks. That fixed the problem.

--
Regards,

Dick Steffens

Revision history for this message
Richard C. Steffens (rsteff) said : 		#3

Thanks for the quick response. Installing "gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad" did indeed fix the problem.

Revision history for this message
Bernd Mueller (adrian-k) said : 		#4

Had the exact same error on my Ubuntu 15.10. machine

sudo apt-get install gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad

did still fix this for me.
Thanks!

Revision history for this message
n0id (jonaredslob) said : 		#5

Hey,

On my 16.04 did installing gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad help when decodebin was reported missing, but scaletempo is still missing. Is there another dependency I could try to install?

Cheers,

Jona

Revision history for this message
Frederik Elwert (frederik-elwert) said : 		#6

I seems like the relevant GStreamer plugin (scaletempo) has been removed in 16.04. Fixing this would require a re-write of Transcribe in order to use a different mechanism to adjust the playback speed.

Unfortunately, I currently don’t have the time to make such an effort. I’m sorry. Of course, contributions are always welcome.

See question #294461.

Revision history for this message
n0id (jonaredslob) said : 		#7

Hey,

thanks for your answer. I wish I had the skills to make a significant contribution. Scaletempo is missing in 0.10, but it seems to be included in gstreamer-1.00, isn't it possible to load it from there?

jona@kyra01:~$ gst-inspect-0.10 scaletempo
No such element or plugin 'scaletempo'
jona@kyra01:~$ gst-inspect-1.0 scaletempo
Factory Details:
  Rank none (0)
  Long-name Scaletempo
  Klass Filter/Effect/Rate
  Description Sync audio tempo with playback rate
  Author Rov Juvano <email address hidden>

Plugin Details:
  Name audiofx
  Description Audio effects plugin
  Filename /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gstreamer-1.0/libgstaudiofx.so
  Version 1.8.0
  License LGPL
  Source module gst-plugins-good
  Source release date 2016-03-24
  Binary package GStreamer Good Plugins (Ubuntu)
  Origin URL https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+source/gst-plugins-good1.0

GObject
 +----GInitiallyUnowned
       +----GstObject
             +----GstElement
                   +----GstBaseTransform
                         +----GstScaletempo

Pad Templates:
  SRC template: 'src'
    Availability: Always
    Capabilities:
      audio/x-raw
                 format: F32LE
                   rate: [ 1, 2147483647 ]
               channels: [ 1, 2147483647 ]
      audio/x-raw
                 format: F64LE
                   rate: [ 1, 2147483647 ]
               channels: [ 1, 2147483647 ]
      audio/x-raw
                 format: S16LE
                   rate: [ 1, 2147483647 ]
               channels: [ 1, 2147483647 ]

  SINK template: 'sink'
    Availability: Always
    Capabilities:
      audio/x-raw
                 format: F32LE
                   rate: [ 1, 2147483647 ]
               channels: [ 1, 2147483647 ]
      audio/x-raw
                 format: F64LE
                   rate: [ 1, 2147483647 ]
               channels: [ 1, 2147483647 ]
      audio/x-raw
                 format: S16LE
                   rate: [ 1, 2147483647 ]
               channels: [ 1, 2147483647 ]

Element Flags:
  no flags set

Element Implementation:
  Has change_state() function: gst_element_change_state_func

Element has no clocking capabilities.
Element has no URI handling capabilities.

Pads:
  SINK: 'sink'
    Pad Template: 'sink'
  SRC: 'src'
    Pad Template: 'src'

Element Properties:
  name : The name of the object
                        flags: readable, writable
                        String. Default: "scaletempo0"
  parent : The parent of the object
                        flags: readable, writable
                        Object of type "GstObject"
  qos : Handle Quality-of-Service events
                        flags: readable, writable
                        Boolean. Default: false
  rate : Current playback rate
                        flags: readable
                        Double. Range: -2,147484e+09 - 2,147484e+09 Default: 0
  stride : Length in milliseconds to output each stride
                        flags: readable, writable
                        Unsigned Integer. Range: 1 - 5000 Default: 30
  overlap : Percentage of stride to overlap
                        flags: readable, writable
                        Double. Range: 0 - 1 Default: 0,2
  search : Length in milliseconds to search for best overlap position
                        flags: readable, writable
                        Unsigned Integer. Range: 0 - 500 Default: 14

But maybe that's not that easy as I hope it could be.

Revision history for this message
Frederik Elwert (frederik-elwert) said : 		#8

It’s good to know that scaletempo is still in Gst 1.0. But this would require porting the whole playback pipeline to Gst 1.0.

This is the main issue for Transcribe in its current state: A lot of technologies used to build it (Python 2, PyGTK 2, Gst 0.10, not to mention quickly) are now ageing or obsolete. Making sure Transcribe continues to work would basically require a complete re-write with a modern technology stack (Python 3, GTK 3.0/GI, Gst 1.0). This would be doable, and maybe even a fun task, but it requires time.

As I said, I currently don’t have that time, and since I don’t use Transcribe personally (for now), it’s not my top priority.

Revision history for this message
Moonguide (dick-a) said : 		#9

On 05/27/2016 12:08 AM, Frederik Elwert wrote:
> Your question #175667 on Transcribe changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/transcribe/+question/175667
>
> Frederik Elwert posted a new comment:
> I seems like the relevant GStreamer plugin (scaletempo) has been removed
> in 16.04. Fixing this would require a re-write of Transcribe in order to
> use a different mechanism to adjust the playback speed.
>
> Unfortunately, I currently don’t have the time to make such an effort.
> I’m sorry. Of course, contributions are always welcome.
>
> See question #294461.
>

Thanks for the update.

A couple of years ago I found that GearPlayer 4 on Windows produced
clearer sound. I've been running that in a virtual Windows 7 on my
Ubuntu machine. While I'd love a true Linux solution, I need the cleaner
audio I get with GP4 and I, too, don't have the time to pursue a major
programming project. I'd love to be able to take the best parts of
several programs I use and put them together, such as the graph in
Audacity, video playback from Totem, variable speed and foot pedal
control from Transcribe. But I'm not sure how I'd get the audio
processing magic in GearPlayer into the mix.

Anyway, thanks for the response.

--
Regards,

Dick Steffens